Human vs. Automated Sales Agents: How and Why Customer Responses Shift Across Sales Stages

2023 | Information Systems Research | Citations: 0

Authors: Adam, Martin; Roethke, Konstantin; Benlian, Alexander

Abstract: Customers in sales processes increasingly encounter automated sales agents (ASAs ... Expand

Abstract: Customers in sales processes increasingly encounter automated sales agents (ASAs) that complement or replace human sales agents (HSAs). Yet, little is known about whether, how, and why customers respond to ASAs in contrast to HSAs across successive decision stages of the same sales process. Even less is known about customer responses to HSA-ASA combinations, where both agents assume distinct roles and focus on complementary tasks that are traditionally performed by only one single sales agent. Against this backdrop, this paper explores the influence of increasingly common sales representative (rep) types (i.e., ASA, HSA, and HSA-ASA) on customer decisions across sales stages. Drawing on information processing theory and the literature on hedonic-utilitarian decision making, we investigate customer responses to text-based ASAs from vendor companies in two common early stages of email sales processes (i.e., sales initiation stages) when customers successively decide whether to indicate their initial interest in an offer and then, whether to provide their contact information. Specifically, we conducted two complementary multi-decision experiments, namely (1) a randomized field experiment in a high-stakes sales initiation setting (n = 325) and (2) a subsequent randomized online experiment to complement the real-world insights (n = 408). Our core findings reveal reversing effect patterns of sales rep types across stages: although customers are more likely to indicate their initial interest to HSAs (versus ASAs) because of HSAs’ higher levels of social presence, they are less likely to provide contact information to HSAs because of HSAs’ lower levels of performance expectancy and effort expectancy. We also show that HSA-ASA combinations can be reasonable options for single ASAs, yet contextual features of the sales setting may affect differential customer responses to HSA-ASA combinations (versus ASAs) in each sales stage. Taken together, we uncover shifting effect patterns in customer responses to sales rep types across successive sales stages and shed light on the consecutive underlying mechanisms that explain these shifts. These findings have significant implications for vendor companies seeking to allocate HSAs and/or ASAs effectively across various decision stages in sales processes and beyond. History: Wonseok Oh, Senior Editor and Khim Yong Goh; Associate Editor. Funding: This work was supported by the Center for Responsible Digitality (ZEVEDI) and the German Research Foundation (DFG) [Grant 471168026]. Supplemental Material: The online appendix is available at https://doi.org/10.1287/isre.2022.1171. Collapse

Topics: electronic mail social presence decision making recommender system information system use

Methods: experiment randomized field experiment regression analysis method experimental task field experiment

Theories: information processing theory

DrugExBERT for Pharmacovigilance – A Novel Approach for Detecting Drug Experiences from User-Generated Content

2023 | International Conference on Information Systems | Citations: 0

Authors: Bohnen, Eva; Erlebach, Stefanie; Zimmermann, Steffen

Abstract: Pharmaceutical companies have to maintain drug safety through pharmacovigilance ... Expand

Abstract: Pharmaceutical companies have to maintain drug safety through pharmacovigilance systems by monitoring various sources of information about adverse drug experiences. Recently, user-generated content (UGC) has emerged as a valuable source of real-world drug experiences, posing new challenges due to its high volume and variety. We present DrugExBERT, a novel approach to extract adverse drug experiences (adverse reaction, lack of effect) and supportive drug experiences (effectiveness, intervention, indication, and off-label use) from UGC. To be able to verify the extracted drug experiences, DrugExBERT additionally provides explications in the form of UGC phrases that were critical for the extraction. In our evaluation, we demonstrate that DrugExBERT outperforms state-of-the-art pharmacovigilance approaches as well as ChatGPT on several performance measures and that DrugExBERT is data-and drug-agnostic. Thus, our novel approach can help pharmaceutical companies meet their legal obligations and ethical responsibility while ensuring patient safety and monitoring drug effectiveness. Collapse

Topics: health information system application programming interface generative AI database system

Methods: chatGPT natural language processing RoBERTa BERT machine learning

“Dear CEO and Board”: How Activist Investors’ Confidence in Tone Influences Campaign Success

2023 | Organization Science | Citations: 0

Authors: Brauer, Matthias; Wiersema, Margarethe; Binder, Philipp

Abstract: Activist hedge funds represent the most potent form of financial activism. Yet w ... Expand

Abstract: Activist hedge funds represent the most potent form of financial activism. Yet we do not fully understand how these activist investors, despite holding only a small stake in target firms, are able to influence management and the board to acquiesce to their demands, especially given the large uncertainty that their demands will improve shareholder value. Building on impression management (IM) theory, we propose that activist investors who express their concerns and demands with high confidence in their letters to target firms are likely to be perceived as knowledgeable and competent by the firm’s other shareholders, thus influencing the response of the firm’s management and board. In support of this theoretical proposition, results of our empirical analysis of 475 U.S. activist campaigns against U.S. companies between 2007 and 2019 suggest that confidence in tone in an activist’s letter, as a form of self-promotion, is positively associated with campaign success. We also observe that the positive association between confidence in tone in activist letters and campaign success is less for activists with greater success in prior campaigns and in campaigns with multiple activists. Our paper contributes to financial activism research by showing that activists’ verbal impression management can serve as an effective influence tactic in their campaigns. Our study also contributes to the emerging research stream on verbal IM by introducing a language attribute, confidence in tone, that has not been studied in management research and is distinct from past constructs examined in verbal IM research. Collapse

Topics: corporate governance strategic management organizational productivity decision making database system

Methods: descriptive statistic qualitative content analysis theory development linguistic analysis regression analysis method

Theories: behavioral theory

An Investigation of Marketing Compensation in Medicine: The Impact of the Information Disclosure Regulations

2023 | HICSS | Citations: 0

Authors: Duan, Wenjing; Cheng, Sherri; Zhou, Wenqi

Abstract: Pharmaceutical scandals frequently occupy national media headlines, and these co ... Expand

Abstract: Pharmaceutical scandals frequently occupy national media headlines, and these controversial practices exacerbate the healthcare expenditure burden and cause ethical concerns. Big Pharma’s marketing strategies involve making various types and sizes of payments to healthcare providers to induce favorable prescribing behaviors for their drugs. Enacted in 2013, the Physician Payments Sunshine Act (PPSA) mandates company disclosures of payments to physicians. Its effectiveness has been explored in various settings, but there have been few rigorous academic studies, and a unified conclusion has not been reached. In this paper, we utilized unique datasets, including pre- and post-PPSA payment data from six major pharmaceutical companies, to examine the impact of state-level disclosure policies and the federal PPSA on pharmaceutical companies’ payments to physicians. Difference-in-difference analysis was adopted to study the dynamics of company payments to physicians before and after the PPSA. We found significant interactions for the state policies and the PPSA on all studied payment types for the six companies. The companies generally decreased their total payments to physicians and the number of paid physicians. However, the policy impacts differed across the payment types and companies. Collapse

Topics: marketing management database system missing data data breach

Methods: difference in differences self reported survey experimental group robustness check post analysis

Social Media Adoption, Usage And Impact In Business-To-Business (B2B) Context: A State-Of-The-Art Literature Review

2023 | Information Systems Frontiers | Citations: 0

Authors: Dwivedi, Yogesh K.; Ismagilova, Elvira; Rana, Nripendra P.; Raman, Ramakrishnan

Abstract: Social media plays an important part in the digital transformation of businesses ... Expand

Abstract: Social media plays an important part in the digital transformation of businesses. This research provides a comprehensive analysis of the use of social media by business-to-business (B2B) companies. The current study focuses on the number of aspects of social media such as the effect of social media, social media tools, social media use, adoption of social media use and its barriers, social media strategies, and measuring the effectiveness of use of social media. This research provides a valuable synthesis of the relevant literature on social media in B2B context by analysing, performing weight analysis and discussing the key findings from existing research on social media. The findings of this study can be used as an informative framework on social media for both, academic and practitioners. Collapse

Topics: social media business-to-business business-to-consumer marketing management Facebook

Methods: survey qualitative content analysis literature study regression analysis method personal interview

Theories: technology acceptance model motivation theory theory of task technology fit resource based view of the firm

Becoming a Data-Driven Organization: A Comparative Case Study on Digital Transformation Strategies

2023 | International Conference on Information Systems | Citations: 0

Authors: Fischer, Hannes

Abstract: In today's data-centric era, organizations increasingly aim to operate more dat ... Expand

Abstract: In today's data-centric era, organizations increasingly aim to operate more data-driven and therefore engage in digital transformations toward becoming a data-driven organization (DDO). To govern such transformations, top managers develop digital transformation strategies (DTS) characterized by different organizational ambidexterity approaches. This study analyzes how such DTS influence the process and (intermediate) outcomes of organizations' digital transformations toward becoming a DDO by studying two organizations undertaking such DDO transformations using the concept of organizational ambidexterity as a theoretical lens. On this empirical basis, we find that DTS characterized by different organizational ambidexterity approaches lead to different transformation processes and (intermediate) outcomes. Thereby, this study contributes to existing academic literature in the field of DDOs and DTS, as such transformation journeys toward becoming a DDO have not been studied in its entirety yet. Furthermore, our paper offers practical guidance for top managers to develop and implement a DTS suitable for their organization. Collapse

Topics: digital transformation value creation decision making sensemaking database system

Methods: case study qualitative interview field study theoretical contribution theory development

Theories: ambidexterity theory

Influence of Twitter on Hydroxychloroquine Medication Prescriptions for COVID-19 Patients

2023 | International Conference on Information Systems | Citations: 0

Authors: Gorthi, Sai Soundarya; Ganju, Kartik; Pinsonneault, Alain

Abstract: Social media is proposed to play a crucial role in healthcare providers' care d ... Expand

Abstract: Social media is proposed to play a crucial role in healthcare providers' care decisions. However, social media information may not always be reliable as false information is prone to virality, and emotional cues may drive information sharing. Hence, in our study, we strive to understand the influence of social media on healthcare providers' care decisions by empirically examining the influence of Twitter discourse regarding Hydroxychloroquine (HCQ) on the actual prescribing rates of the drug in the USA for treating Collapse

Topics: Twitter social media application programming interface Python missing data

Methods: longitudinal research machine learning qualitative coding autocorrelation analysis mixed method

Theories: elaboration likelihood model

Do Early Words from New Ventures Predict Fundraising? A Comparative View of Social Media Narratives

2023 | Management Information Systems Quarterly | Citations: 0

Authors: Havakhor, Taha; Golmohammadi, Alireza; Sabherwal, Rajiv; Gauri, Dinesh

Abstract: Online equity markets have significantly changed the dynamics of connecting ang ... Expand

Abstract: Online equity markets have significantly changed the dynamics of connecting angels and individual equity investors to new ventures that seek early-stage capital. However, for those early-stage investors, information pointing to the success of business-to-business (B2B) new ventures (B2BNVs) is scattered and disconnected. This paper focuses on social media narratives (SMNs) as a source of insight for such investors and proposes that predicting a B2BNV's likelihood of success requires a comparative view, i.e., a comparison of its SMNs with those of its competitors and customers. We expect that higher (lower) lingual similarity between the SMNs of an early-stage B2BNV and those of its prospective customers (competitors) predict its success. Using a longitudinal panel of 574 B2BNVs resulting in more than 2,700 venture-round observations, we find that a comparative view of a venture's SMNs can give early-stage investors reliable predictions about the B2BNV's ability to manage its market presence and its success in later stages. Our models show that a comparative view of SMNs increases the accuracy of predicting a B2BNV's later-stage fundraising success by an average of 15%. Furthermore, predictive models can reliably point to a successful market presence in later stages, including the landing of customers, the winning of awards and competitions, the receiving of endorsements, the generating of revenue, and the successful patenting of products. Our study contributes to existing literature that focuses on the business impacts of social media by demonstrating the usefulness of comparative linguistics in social media analytics, i.e., comparing the firm's social media communications to those of its competitors and business customers in the prediction of the entrepreneurial firm's success. Collapse

Topics: Twitter social media social media analytics social capital website

Methods: machine learning chi squared test latent dirichlet allocation robustness check theoretical contribution

Theories: lemon market theory

ICT as a collectively enacted artifact? A collective enactment perspective

2023 | Information & Management | Citations: 0

Authors: Huang, Chen-Hao; Chou, Tzu-Chuan

Abstract: As the organizational demand for ICT (Information Communication Technologies) un ... Expand

Abstract: As the organizational demand for ICT (Information Communication Technologies) undergoes rapid changes, organizations must integrate other enterprise systems into ICT to continually address their current challenges. However, few studies have considered the dynamic fabric of ICT, especially since its usage is evolving with the development of digital technology and the organization’s needs. Therefore, this study conducts a case study of a prominent Taiwanese petrochemical corporation, exploring its ICT practices to underscore the dynamic nature of ICT. Additionally, the study introduces a collective enactment model to investigate the development of evolving ICT practices within the organization. Prior literature on ICT development focuses on organizational applications and its novel technology feature. With the evolution of technology, traditional ICT alone is no longer sufficient to meet digital transformation requirements. In other words, organizations need to integrate other enterprise sys­ tems in ICT to continually address their current challenges effectively. To investigate the practices under such evolving ICT, this study suggests viewing ICT as a continuously evolving practice to cope with the rapidly changing organizational environment. From a managerial perspective, this study highlights the dynamic feature of ICT, especially the interaction between ICT and organization members. From a theoretical perspective, this study emphasizes the importance of collective action to ICT development so that enactment theory has been extended. Collapse

Topics: systems development social media Google+ information exchange user experience

Methods: case study qualitative interview business process modeling qualitative coding grounded theory

Theories: theory of affordance enactment theory action theory

Collaborations and Innovation in Partitioned Industries: An Analysis of U.S. Feature Film Coproductions

2023 | Organization Science | Citations: 0

Authors: Jia, Ruo; Lewis, Demetrius; Negro, Giacomo

Abstract: In partitioned industries, a small number of generalist organizations occupy the ... Expand

Abstract: In partitioned industries, a small number of generalist organizations occupy the center of the market, whereas a much larger number of specialists populate the periphery. The role of collaborations within and across the center-periphery boundary in these industries has been underexplored. We propose that hybrid collaborations between organizations in the center and periphery—combining the broad resource base of generalists with the focused knowledge of specialists—encourage product innovation and result in enhanced organizational adaptation for both populations. We test these ideas in the U.S. motion picture industry, where film production companies face significant unpredictability of success and fluctuating audience tastes. We find that generalist and specialist production companies that partner to produce films introduce more creative content in their films compared with those that collaborate in the same population or produce alone. Generalist film companies benefit further from these collaborations through increased competitive differentiation of their films from other generalists in subsequent productions, whereas specialists experience lower exit rates. These findings suggest that interorganizational collaborations between generalists and specialists provide effective adaptive strategies to compete in markets with uncertain demand and shifting audience preferences. These strategies can sustain, rather than weaken, industry partitioning. Funding: This work was funded by an ad hoc research grant from Emory University. Supplemental Material: The online appendix is available at https://doi.org/10.1287/orsc.2022.1600. Collapse

Topics: innovation management online review database system knowledge sharing internet technology

Methods: Internet Movie Database review multidimensional scaling Wald test descriptive statistic regression analysis method